


a time to dance

by ThreadSketchier



Series: Glimpses [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Partying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 18:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreadSketchier/pseuds/ThreadSketchier
Summary: Because the internet needed just one more "what happened at the Ewok party besides drinking and bad dancing" fic.  (Primarily from Han's POV, as in keeping with most of this series.)





	a time to dance

_ He wasn’t.  I can feel it _ .

He trusted her, but he had to keep  _ telling  _ himself he trusted her.  Night had fallen and the victory celebration was underway, and Luke still wasn’t here. Even if he’d escaped the Death Star, had he crash-landed in another hemisphere?  Was he hurt and unable to make it back? If he hadn’t left it behind, his comm would’ve been confiscated when he was taken into custody, and if whatever ship he’d bolted in was totaled, he’d have no way to contact them –

Abruptly Leia turned her head toward an empty walkway at the edge of the village square and leaned out of Han’s embrace, then rose to her feet.  Han stood with her, asking, “Is he – ?”

And then he saw the sheen of leather boots, the bright silver lightsaber swinging from the hip, and the bronze mop of hair emerging from the darkness of the unlit wood.  Luke came striding down the path with a  _ real _ , broad, unabashed smile that took the years away.

An infectious grin broke out on his own face, but he held himself back as Leia sprang forward to pull him into her arms first.  The two of them – brother and sister,  _ twins _ ; all things considered, it really wasn’t surprising – swayed together for a minute, savoring each other’s presence, before they disengaged and Leia gave him an affectionate shove in Han’s direction.

Vader’s kids, both of them.  Who’d have thought. For all of Leia’s wrath, though, she had too much strength and virtue shoring her up, and the  _ Kid _ …nine hells, he’d never know how that wheezy bastard made someone with the power of two suns shining out their ass.  And damn was he glad to see some of that radiance back where it belonged. Han grabbed tight hold of Luke and gave him a hard clap on the back, then pushed him away just far enough to get a good look at him.  He seemed all right, none the worse for wear, just a little shadowed under the eyes. Tired like the rest of them.

Just like Echo Base, Luke opened his mouth, ready to say something, but faltered, unable to find a way to express it.  Too many things, surely. Han squeezed his shoulders in understanding, and Luke nodded. It was all right if he wasn’t ready to talk.  At least he was here, finally.

After Luke made his own rounds through the crowd giving and receiving greetings, he didn’t return to them, but withdrew to the sidelines of the party, eventually coming to lean against a tree trunk with his back to them.  Han wanted to give him his space, but concern compelled him to give Leia a little nudge to go check on him. Once Leia sidled up to him, though, he laughed and yielded to her, whatever clouds on his mind chased away.

No doubt it was going to be rough tomorrow.  But that was tomorrow. For now they were all alive and free and together, and nothing else should get in the way of their joy.  They’d earned it.

This time when Luke came back to their fold, he stayed for the rest of the night, listening eagerly to each of their accounts but not doing much talking himself.  In the middle of Lando’s and Nien’s tale one little Ewok scampered up to Leia – if Han could recall, this one was named Wicket and Leia had said he was still just a kid – and she scooped him up and sat him in her lap as if he was practically her son.  That image stewed in Han’s brain for a bit. Just the thought that it was a possibility, even if a distant one, that someday Leia would be sitting like that with a child of theirs on her knee sent a warm thrill through him not unlike confronting an uncharted cargo run.

For about a minute Wicket was cuddled contentedly against Leia, when he stiffened and twisted around to stare at Luke.  And kept staring while his button nose twitched. Luke met his scrutiny with an awkward smile. “…Hi?” he tried.

“ _ Acchiata eh notofosko _ .”

Luke and Leia mutually frowned in confusion and looked to C-3PO for help, who fluttered his hands in mild distress.  “Oh my. That could be…rather impolite.”

Luke lifted his eyebrows.  “Well, I’d still like to know what he said.”

“Ah, well, I’m afraid he seems to be claiming that you, ah…smell of death.”

Blank shock wiped away all other emotion from Luke’s face, and he reared back as if to distance himself.  Everyone in their little group fell silent, less at the translation and more at Luke’s reaction to it. Han interjected crossly, “Hey, what does he mean by that?”

Wicket wriggled out of Leia’s lap and reached out to grasp Luke’s arm, chittering rapidly and pointing at his fellow Ewoks, most of which were still dancing and drumming apart from a handful of the elders who clapped along with the beat or were busy quaffing some berry and herbal wines.  Luke didn’t jerk away from his touch but looked exceptionally uncomfortable, as if he wanted to flee the scene immediately.

“Oh, oh, I see,” C-3PO elaborated.  “The term can have multiple meanings, but I believe he’s referring to illness.  He’s offering the services of their healer – ”

“Wait,  _ what? _ ” Han barked.  “Is he saying something’s wrong with Luke?”  To his consternation some of the fright drained out of Luke’s demeanor, as if he was relieved that  _ that’s _ all it was.  Stupid, crazy kid.

Leia was gazing at him in subdued alarm, her hand curling around his right wrist in reassurance.  “Luke, there may be some medics left here,” she said softly. “We can step aside for a few minutes and have you looked at.”  Lando was already staring expectantly at her, ready to go searching for one.

R2-D2 whistled a string of concerned notes, and C-3PO nodded.  “I agree, Master Luke, if you are malfunctioning you should be attended to immediately.”

Luke seemed to wilt a little, sighing deeply.  “I…okay. I thought it could wait.” His voice dropped to nearly a whisper.  “I just wanted to be here with you for now.”

Leia’s fingers laced with his, empathy in her eyes.  Han cursed inwardly. Yeah, Luke understood too – they all had one precious night to themselves and once it was over, it was back to duties and chaos and the messy business of figuring out what to do and how to deal with everything that had changed.  But it wasn’t worth hanging around wasting time if he was sick or injured. Who the hell knew what had happened, what had been done to him up there. Leia had neglected herself before the Battle of Yavin; they didn’t need Luke doing that too.

Leia turned her attention back to Wicket, “Thank you for your generous offer, but we do have people who can examine and take care of him.  We’re grateful you brought this to our attention,” and C-3PO translated for her.

Lando sprang up, taking Nien with him to expedite their search.  A short while later they returned with a man named Betril who thankfully looked sober enough to still do his job, and Chewie and Leia escorted Luke out of the village square in search of some privacy.  It wasn’t very hard to find; every last Ewok was out to party, leaving their homes empty. There  _ were _ a few occupied, however, by couples passing the celebration with some long-sought-after release.  Han exchanged a cheeky look with Leia as they caught the noises – that might have been them if they hadn’t preferred to wait to see their friends.

When Betril emerged from the hut after his examination, his expression wasn’t grim, but it wasn’t exactly cheerful either.  “He should be getting rest and a lot of fluids under observation right now, not sticking around here. He’s dehydrated, electrolytes are off, blood pressure and proteins and heart rate are all elevated, but his white cell count’s low.  There’s some muscle breakdown and peripheral neuropathy; I gave him a painkiller for now to take the edge off.”

If Luke wasn’t already in bad shape, Han would’ve given him a good cuff upside the head.  He planted his hands on his hips. “You know what caused it?”

Betril’s pursed his mouth with unease.  “I’m not sure. We know the Empire’s...novelty with prisoners.  I didn’t pick up any residual drugs or toxins.” His thick brows knitted.  “To be honest, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he’d have been out here in the woods getting struck by lightning.  He’s got some extensive broken capillaries from fractal burns, but not the typical entry and exit wounds and thermal burns from current.  Nothing serious, they should clear up on their own in a few days. But it’s…” He averted his eyes briefly, shaking his head.

It didn’t mean anything good, whatever it was.

Han glanced aside at Leia and found her eyes haunted, surely by the memories of her own torture.  He took her hand and squeezed it gently, thumb rubbing circles across the fine bones.

“I’d start a line on him, but I figure you’re going to be taking him up yourselves shortly,” Betril said.

Han jerked a thumb behind him.  “Yeah, we will. But you can come along and get him prepped while we’re leaving atmo.  Just meet us at the way out of this place.” Betril nodded with a  _ yessir _ and headed back toward the village square.

The three of them entered the hut, where Luke sat cross-legged on the floor looking very somber, the bottom of his tunic rumpled and untucked from his trousers and his lapel hanging even lower.  Leia knelt by his side, one arm encircling his back while her other hand cupped his cheek and turned his face toward her gently. “Luke. I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. But you shouldn’t have kept this hidden from us.”

He shrugged slightly.  “I didn’t think it was that bad.  Yeah, I’m exhausted and I hurt in places I didn’t think I could.  But I was happy to just be back with you. That it’s…it’s over.” He smiled sadly.  “Not the war, I mean.”

“I know,” she replied, her eyes misting.  She pulled him close and kissed the corner of his lips as she’d always liked to do, and hugged him carefully.

“I’ll tell you later,” he murmured, glancing up guiltily at Han.  “But I know we need to go for now.”

“Yeah, we do.”  Han offered a hand to hoist him to his feet, worrying about how they were going to get him down through all the precarious ladders, vines, and twisting walkways to the forest floor without it being a strenuous journey for him – a fresh wave of irritation rolled through him when he remembered that Luke had taken that route already to get up here – but Chewie stepped in and pushed his hand away.

< _ Get on my back, cub.  We will take a shortcut _ .>

Luke blinked up at him, startled.  Chewie bared his fangs in a grin and unsheathed one long, wicked claw.  Han fought back the urge to laugh out loud. Leia looked between the two of them in confusion; she was still learning the finer points of Shyriiwook.  “You’re going to  _ climb _ down?”

Han held up his hands.  “Hey, it  _ is _ faster.”

Luke was caught between embarrassment and amusement, a mortified smile tugging at his lips as his cheeks flushed.  But he reached up and put his arms around Chewie’s shoulders as the Wookiee stooped down, and wrapped his legs around his waist.

“Just don’t get too cozy and fall asleep,” Han warned him.  “You still gotta hang on.”

“I won’t,” Luke mumbled into the fur on Chewie’s back, a soft chuckle escaping him.

On their way out of the village, Han tracked down a handful of the strike team to notify them of their departure, and Leia urged C-3PO to stay for the time being to keep facilitating communication between their forces and the Ewok tribe.  R2 wanted to leave with them to accompany Luke, but getting the astromech through the arboreal obstacle course again, with or without the Ewoks’ help, was something too time-consuming at the moment. Unfortunately Luke himself wasn’t available to float R2 down the way he’d done with Goldenrod.

As soon as it became obvious that they were leaving, Lando jumped up to follow them, looking rather nervous.  “Ahhhh, Han…”

“You coming along?”

“There’s, uh…something you should know about the  _ Falcon _ .”

Even in the night’s darkness, Han noticed it immediately when they reached the glade that served as an impromptu landing platform.  He rounded on Lando, livid. “What was that you said?  _ Not a scratch?! _ ”

Lando held his hands up in defense.  “It’s not my fault, there wasn’t any room left to maneuver!  Besides, this technically isn’t a scratch. More like a...remodeling.”

“Boys.”  Leia passed between them, patting their shoulders.  “Let’s talk repairs later. We have a more urgent one to address.”  Chewie came up behind her, still carrying a very drowsy-looking Luke, who clicked his tongue and groaned in sympathy for Han.  Betril was doing an exemplary job of keeping his mouth shut and minding his own business but looking very much like this was an anecdote Commander Skywalker wasn’t going to be allowed to ever live down.

Han jabbed a finger at Lando.  “You owe me, buddy. You’re gonna put that Generalship to good use getting another sensor dish up there, you hear me?”

“Relax, I’ll have it good as new – better than new – even if I have to bolt it on myself.  I hear there’s a couple Star Destroyers drifting up there just ready for the picking.”

A wolfish grin spread across Han’s face.  “Yeah. Yeah, that’ll do nicely.”


End file.
